What were we thinking?

Recently, I’ve been compiling a bunch of quotes from people for an article we’re working on in the February 2010 issue of the magazine. The article is pretty simple to explain, as far as articles go, since it’s just basically answering the question of things you wish you’d known in high school. I’ve gotten a lot of great responses and the article is shaping up to be a pretty good piece. . . but I’ve got a few things I wish I’d known when I was younger that I’d like to discuss here:

• When you feel the urge to wear everything 4 sizes too big, namely oversized sweaters and sweatshirts that go to your knees and you are unfortunately wearing in every picture in the yearbook from your 8th-9th grade years.

• I wish I’d known that being considered “popular” wasn’t as important as I thought it was back then.

• I wish I’d done more to reach out to people. I was nice, but there were people I could have influenced for better things and I didn’t because I was shy and it made me uncomfortable.

• I wish I’d known the depth of the relationship Jesus wanted to have with me and dived into it.

• I wish I’d known that what people say about you doesn’t have to define you.

• I wish I’d known that even people in authority over you are sometimes wrong and led by wrong motives.

• I wish I’d known the milk cooler was out of commission that one time I got that spoiled carton of milk and inexplicably took a drink without smelling it first.

• I wish I hadn’t been so focused on myself.

• I wish I’d known about eyeliner.

• I wish I hadn’t been such a fan of tucking my shirt in.

• I wish I’d taken the opportunity to learn the program to design the yearbook/newspaper on the computer instead of doing paste-up.

What do you wish you’d known? Sound off in the comments.